…
"Like all great travelers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen."
(Benjamin Disraeli)
…
MFV Discovery, March 4th, 6:21 AM, 2185
…
Yawning soundlessly in my capsule, I leaned my arms and legs out, touching both ends of my pod before I turned on my side to face Mara, sleeping soundly with Elle in a small bundle of blankets between our heads, still sound asleep. Smiling at the sight, I planted a kiss on Mara's forehead, watching her stir for a moment before slipping back into sleep.
Pulling myself out of my pod, I threw my socks, hoodie, and sneakers on, still wearing my sweatpants from the night before as I sauntered through the common area. Boxes of personal effects littered the area, still yet to be unpacked. I looked over at the back of the common area where Powell's platform stood on standby as he occupied the ship's systems. Lenlo, as usual, was already up doing his daily check of the ship computers, walking back and forth on the bridge as I waved to him. I grabbed a water bottle and entered the airlock without another word.
Letting out another yawn, I waited for the decon cycle to finish, trying to work the jelly out of my eyes as the doors to the outside finally opened, blasting me with warm, morning air and orange sunlight. It was refreshing to say the least.
Stretching my arms over my head, I walked out into the open air, feeling the sweet breeze. It was a good way to spend the morning before getting into the thick of it with my busload of duties. Staring out into the orange sky, I thought about everything going on, something I had been too busy the last few days to truly dwell on.
The land the Raloi had given us, called "Siġra Poġġi", was an old wooded area that used to be farmland years ago before they had depleted all the nutrients in the soil, rendering it useless for cultivation. In the end, it left a large, open field in the middle of the forest that, over time, developed a lot of smaller vegetation, mostly grasses and bushes. The only notable landmarks for miles were a nuclear power station that ran alongside a river, and the foothills and low mountains far off in the distance.
In a way, it reminded me of the countryside in Maryland that I used to see on long car rides as a kid. When you got up towards the Pennsylvania line, you'd be able to see the beginnings of the Appalachians, and if you drove over them, your ears would even pop from the pressure difference. It was strange, seeing how similar worlds light years apart could be to one another.
The Discovery, Kavna, and Niveau were all "parked" in this large plot of land, giving it an odd kind of atmosphere. On one hand, it looked a bit like some sort of staging ground for an invasion due to there being all these heavily armed and armored ships sitting here, surrounded by a large marine detachment. On the other hand, we had erected a few basic structures to operate out of and store things in, giving it more of a junky, "in-progress" appearance.
It was barely organized at this point. We had no plans to build permanent structures here yet, so we were working primarily out of our own ships until we received a few brand-new prefabs from Reach. Considering nearly my whole team was now staying with us, that left things very cramped on our small ship. It was only designed to comfortably hold twelve people, and there were sixteen of us, not including my daughter.
Maybe in the future we'd build something more solid, if only to free up additional space, but we didn't want to give the impression that we were trying to set up shop or anything like that. They might view something like that as disrespectful.
"Hey there." I heard a familiar voice greet, as I flipped around to see Dan sitting nonchalantly on top of the Discovery, with a bowl of cereal in his lap and a bottle of milk in his hand.
"Wow, you're up early." I replied, putting both hands on my hips as I looked up at him with my head cocked. "How'd you sleep?"
"Like a baby." He smiled, swinging his legs back and forth in an alternating pattern. "Went for a run, didn't feel like d-doing it when the sun was all the w...way out."
"You're enjoying the new leg, huh?" I joked, pointing at it as he looked down casually.
"That bastard can m-make a good leg, I'll gi...give him that." He shrugged, giving me one of his rare, half complement, half insults. "What's on the ag...agenda today?"
"Well, we're supposed to fly out an offer technical support with structural design. Might talk to them a little about engines, haven't decided yet." I laid out, looking off to the sides to see if anyone else was up. "They're getting a hang of this pretty quickly, it's just a matter of properly tuning their industrial capacity."
"With twelve b-billion people, they should have plenty of indi...individuals to press into industrial roles." Dan suggested, picking up a bowl of cereal from next to him and popping a spoonful into his mouth.
"Only problem with that is most of them are only farmers." I shot back, walking up the scaffolding to where he was as I spoke. "They take these caste structures very seriously. Most of them grow up without the ability to read, for god's sake."
"Well… if they want to grow… they have to change." Dan spoke through his mouthful of cereal, looking at me as I sat down next to him. "They need to mandate ed...education and skills t-training."
"That's easier said than done." I remarked in a sunken tone, knowing what a massive feat that would be. "That requires social change, a change they might not be ready for yet."
All Dan responded with was a head shake, shrugging before going in for another scoop of cereal.
From the top of the ship, the foothills and mountains in the distance really stuck out, especially with the system's sun to their backs. While it wasn't nearly as impressive as Serenity Valley back home on Reach, I could still appreciate it nevertheless.
"Once again, we're thrown to a diff-different location." Dan said in a tired tone, staring out towards the sun. "Is this what being a tra...traveling salesman feels like?"
"I guess, I don't know." I replied in a semi-dismissive tone, putting my right elbow against my leg as I used my hand to prop my head up. "Part of me is happy to be out here, to be honest. It's not home, sure, and we're working conservatively with what we have again, but we have next to no oversight this far from Reach."
"Fair enough." Dan shrugged, slurping down the powdered milk in his bowl.
Part of me was starting to like this, even if we were working from the ground up. It was sometimes refreshing to work with limited resources, it forced us to get more creative with our engineering solutions. Even so, that would change soon once our pipeline back to Reach was finalized. At that point, travel between the two systems would only take a few hours, as opposed to a few days.
It was clear what the Admiralty were trying to do here, a least in my eyes. They were trying to set up our supply lines so the Raloi's only contact to the outside world was through them. While I didn't like their methods, I couldn't help but agree with their reasoning to a certain extent. There were plenty of factions that would love to make the Raloi see the quarians as bag guys, especially Cerberus and bastards like that one turian councilor, Sparatus.
Who knows what they might do with a less-experienced race like the Raloi. At least when humanity ran into the turians, we already had a decent foothold in other systems with a naval presence. Right now, anyone the Raloi fought with would be at a serious advantage.
We'd be their protectors from the outside world for now, though they didn't need to know that. Not yet.
"So, what'd you think of that dinner last night?" I asked in an attempt to build up some banter, knowing we likely wouldn't see each other for the next few hours.
"I thought it was a complete di-disaster." He shook his head, picking a lone piece of cereal from the side of his bowl and popping it into his mouth. "I understand they have a different… physiology than us, but you'd t-think they would have thought up a few basics of pr...proper food handling. Raw meat just seems… obvious."
"I think that's an unfair assumption to come to." I defended, unable to hold back a grin as a look of disgust slid onto his face. "At least the drinks they served were good."
"Yeah, if you like s-sucking down tea leaves mixed with pure cane sugar." He shuddered, visibly tensing up as he recalled the memory. "How can you say that was good?"
"You forget the crunch time forced myself through during our finals back in 2018." I reminded him as he narrowed his eyes in minor annoyance. "Remember that tea I made?"
"Yeah, you made fucking gulag tea, that Chifir shit." He exclaimed, looking at me like I was a madman. "How you managed to drink that crap without vomiting, I still don't know."
"The trick was to add sugar and drink it slowly." I tried explaining before he closed his eyes and held up his hands, obviously wanting me to stop.
"I don't need to remember those b-borderline "alertness experiments" you tried." He remarked, letting out a sigh. "You were so wired that you didn't sleep for two days. Re...remember that?"
"Now that you mention it, I don't." I attempted to recall, rubbing the bottom of my chin as I stared up into the sky. "All I can remember is a haze of different colors, loud music, and a cup stain that never came off of the desk in our dorm room."
"You listened to the Quake II so...soundtrack for seven hours straight. Seven. Hours." He said with emphasis as I broke out laughing, rolling over onto my side. "It's not funny! You nearly drove me insane!"
"Hehe… I don't know, it sounds a little funny." I denied, wiping tears from my eyes as I struggled to regain my composure. "Oh, I do remember Professor Foster asking me if I had taken speed or some other drug. He nearly reported me for suspicious behavior before catching wind of my breath."
"Yeah, well he was always a d-drama queen." He shook his head, sucking back the milk left in his bowl as he brought the whole thing up to his face.
As silence filled the space between us again, I leaned with my back against the hull staring up at the sky as the planet's moon slid across the sky, casting an odd glow over any passing clouds.
"You know, my mother and father were always right about one thing… I do miss those old days where life used to be easy. No responsibilities, not a care in the world… it's almost like a dream." I reminisced as Dan gave me a side glace, setting down his bowl before putting his back to the hull as well.
"Yeah, my mom always t-told me the same thing." He said, tracking the moon without breaking eye contact. "Nowadays, seems like we're the only ones taking re...responsibility for anything."
"Those who are willing to excel will always be looked down upon by those just skirting by." I sighed, folding both my hands over my chest. "It's always the same mentality. The women my mother worked with when she did finance for Baltimore City would do it to her too."
"It seems to be our lot in life, I guess." Dan mused, putting his hands behind his head as both of us went silent once more.
I hoped, one day, we'd finally be able to relax and handle life at our own pace. Maybe, one day.
…
Tolcuma Research Facility, March 4th, 11:30 AM, 2185
…
Walking through the well-guarded facility with Lenlo, Mara, and two Migrant Fleet marines in tow, it was clear the Raloi handled research and development much differently than we do. Their workstations were very dark, dimly lit due to their ability to see well in low-light conditions. They still used hand-written notes and documents for most projects, written and printed, of course, in their own language that I couldn't understand. Last but not least, it was very disorganized and dirty by my standards.
It reminded me of medieval forges or the stereotypical Dwarven workshops from fiction. While it worked and all, it certainly wasn't pretty.
"Up here, we have the wooden mockup of our "VSEVO" design." The lead engineer explained, pointing up at the wood structure above us. It was their current design for a suborbital spaceplane, capable of reaching the edge of the atmosphere. "We tested a version of it several months ago, but it broke up after reaching 1,536 miles-per-hour."
"That's twice the speed needed to break the sound barrier." I remarked, climbing the oversized step ladder underneath to take a better look.
Looking at the mock-up, I really couldn't find any obvious faults with the internal design itself, seeing they had properly utilized all the proper cross-joints and structural elements. Looking deeper into it however, I noticed something off with the shape of the wings. It utilized an odd variable-sweep wing configuration similar to an F-14 Tomcat, but fatter and much too heavy for the speeds they were attempting to pull off.
"The problem is that the wings are far too narrow and heavy to handle the g-forces being exerted on them." I explained, pointing at the shape with my finger. "The wings need to be wider, ideally fixed-wing, and more streamlined."
"But the variable-sweep allows us to better control it at lower speeds." He argued, not sounding entirely convinced. "Isn't there a way to incorporate the wing configuration we're currently using?"
"Unfortunately, no. The stress is too great, and your materials are too heavy." I denied, taking out my omni-tool and projecting a screen for him to see as I sketched out a simple, elongated delta-style wing. "I believe simply changing the design to this configuration will improve your structural strength ten-fold."
"But what of the problem of stability at lower speeds?" Another one of the engineers asked, sounding understandably worried.
"That's a problem solved by this new wing design." I reasoned, pointing at the back of the wings. "Using the liquid fuel stored in the wings and the enlarged tailerons, a skilled pilot with enough practice should be able to "feel" the orientation of the aircraft and make adjustments easily. It'll even offer more stability at higher speeds."
The lead engineer looked visibly frustrated with my explanation, taking a deep breath before focusing on me again.
"He is right, design is both lighter and more structurally sound." A third engineer piped up, looking at my drawing with inquisitive eyes. "Why did we not think of this before?"
"It will take weeks to fabricate a new craft with this design." The lead engineer remarked in a grim tone, sounding very stressed. "I will be losing a lot of sleep over this…"
"Hey, don't worry yourself over it, we still make plenty of mistakes too, you know." Mara reassured as Elle stared at the aliens with qurious, but cautious eyes.
The lead engineer respectfully lowered his head to show his thanks before walking off with the other engineers, leaving us alone for a few moments.
"They seem a little… high strung." Lenlo joked, trying to inject a little humor into the conversation.
"Their lives depend on how well they do their work. It's not surprising to see them stress out over something like this." Mara shot back, looking to me. "What do you think?"
"I think they're better off than those Northrop Grumman employees that got left in an active combat zone by their bosses." I sneered, heeding Lenlo's attempt to add humor to our day. "Or was it Lockheed Martin? I can't remember anymore."
"Honey, your autism is showing again." Mara jeered in an unamused tone, tilting her head and looking at me with narrowed eyes.
"Heh… sorry." I quickly apologized, readjusting my stance as I looked up at the wooden mockup again. "But seriously, I'm surprised they didn't put two-and-two together and come to that conclusion themselves."
"Are you really that surprised?" Mara asked with added emphasis, looking around at the projects strewn about the workshop. "They've got to be one of the most… enigmatic species I've ever seen when it comes to their technology. Name a species that's developed nuclear technology before gunpowder-based weaponry. Name just one other than them."
Knowing she was 100% correct, I didn't bother trying to challenge her viewpoint. Gifting our technology to the Raloi had proven to be a much greater challenge than I had originally anticipated, and we had essentially encountered a case of species-wide Galápagos syndrome. Their tech was either ahead of us, or wildly behind us depending on where you looked.
On one hand, they had developed incredible advances in eezo refinement, implementation, and so forth, giving us great pause when considering their technological development. There was no better example of this than their warriors and high-ranking leaders, who wore "noded" suits that afforded them much greater control over their biotics, and their primary weapon of choice, an eezo-infused "spear" that had the ability to project a shaped kinetic blast against an opponent. It was quite impressive.
On the other hand, however, they had only just recently discovered the power of the atom, fifty-eight years ago, and had never bothered developing planes until just recently due to their natural ability to fly. This, on top of their lack of standardization outside of military roles, has made them a little difficult to deal with. They were a long ways off from a proper presence in space, though they were certainly on the right track.
And as my wife had just stated, they hadn't even developed gunpowder-based weaponry past a few, archaic examples from over a hundred years ago. The Raloi were those kinds of people that believed fighting should be done up close and personal, no matter the situation.
That was a bit of a problem, considering everyone mostly used mass accelerator weapons these days.
At least we had a plan to provide a solid base for them. Powell, Tony, and Richard were given the important job of progressing their computer development, while everyone else handled their own respective assignments. Advancing their computer tech would give them a proper backbone to work off of, and would allow us to better convey ideas both quicker and easier. Once we were to the point where we could run complex simulations and implement proper networking between different regions of the planet, all that would be left are some of the societal aspects.
Dan had a good point about the population needing education. While there were a lot of Raloi, few were even able to read, let alone perform complex operations such as large-scale material fabrication or mass production of complex machinery. While all of the tech outside of their military was indeed interesting, the majority of it was hand-built with their own unique parts and manufacturing methods. Good craftsmanship, sure, but poor potential when it came to streamlining and standard production line work.
My thoughts were interrupted when my omni-tool rang, playing "Cat Blues" from the Cowboy Bebop soundtrack. Soran was calling.
"Sean here." I immediately answered, looking at our two marine guards as I spoke. "What's happening?"
"I just got word that our supply ships have arrived." She stated in her usual, no-nonsense tone. "That man your friend Richard mentioned, David, is with them. He's already messaged me twice about getting him to the surface."
"He can be such a pain in the ass, I swear." I remarked, shaking my head. "I'll get personnel sorted out, can you take care of materials and supplies until I get back to camp?"
"You got it." She replied with enthusiasm, cutting the line as I threw my head back and took a deep sigh.
"Richard… he never learns, does he?" Mara mused as Lenlo played a quiet game of peek-a-boo with Elle.
"There are some days where I wish he'd stayed with the Geth." I groaned, pulling my hair back with both hands. "Still… I admit I'm looking forward to meeting David."
"How much do you think he remembers?" She asked with genuine curiosity, getting me to purse my lips.
"Hopefully, very little. I'd hate to remember every moment of that nightmare they put him through." I said, recalling those images, forever frozen in my mind of a man subjected to some of the worst treatment imaginable.
My grim thoughts were cut off as Elle squealed in excitement, waving her hands around with a smile as Lenlo leaned forward and allowed her to shake his finger. I could only imagine the grin on Lenlo's face as she did this, bringing similar expressions to Mara and I's faces.
"We need to stop dwelling on these things so much." Mara shook her head, looking back to me. "I'm sure he's an interesting person. He must be if Richard is getting this angsty about his arrival."
"Right. We'll call the meeting short until we've finished sorting out everything." I decided, knowing that having our extra supplies would likely make a lot of this work easier.
Hell, we'd be hard-pressed to deny Richard his new talking point.
…
Siġra Poġġi, March 4th, 12:42 PM, 2185
…
Watching the transport ships coming in, I paced back and forth as Richard stood behind me, covering his prosthetic eye to keep debris from flying into it. He was beyond excited to get David onto his team. It felt odd seeing him get excited about something like this, but perhaps it pointed to something else I wasn't aware of. After all, It wouldn't be the first time Richard had refused to tell me something.
"You know, you oughta get an eyepatch for moments like this. Make everyone think you're a pirate or something." I joked, looking back at him as he smiled and looked down at the ground.
"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" He chuckled as the ship slowed, hovering above the clearing. "You and Dan never did forgive me for stealing that shuttle."
"I had a nice pair of boots in that shuttle, damn it." I shot back, Richard breathing in sharply as he fought himself trying not to laugh.
Our ship touched down, blowing large amounts of dust into the air as its engines slowly cycled down. The transport was actually one of our Desant-class dropships, but instead of mechs, it was outfitted with several storage containers.
I couldn't get over how awesome it felt seeing our inventions at work in the field. Building and testing them was one thing, but seeing them actually being used outside of a testing environment would never cease being cool in my eyes.
As the containers were lowered down on their massive magnetic clamps, the ramp to the crew section opened, revealing two figures. One of them I had been expecting, the other… not so much. David was indeed there, wearing a trimmed down exo over top his standard crew uniform, standing next to Greg, who seemed as surprised to see me as I was to see him.
"Well, this is certainly unexpected!" I greeted with enthusiasm as they both walked down the platform, David in particular taking his time. "Nice to see you, Greg!"
"Likewise." He immediately replied, shaking my hand. "Good to see you've escaped the clutches of your superiors yet again."
"Hey, I'm not complaining, look at what my assignment has yielded us." I grinned, holding out my arm to the foothills in the distance. "Though, I must admit, I'm a bit confused as to why you're here. When did the Alliance catch wind of our discovery here?"
"Well, lets just say you tend to notice when all your neighbors have suddenly disappeared without so much as a note saying "Out for bread and eggs, be back soon."" He joked, putting his hands on his hips. "With enough nagging, I finally got the scoop on what had happened."
"So, what are your plans?" Richard asked quickly as I sensed that familiar sensation tingling in the back of my skull.
"For now, I'm just acting as an impartial observer. Hackett is aware of your discovery here, but for now that's on a need-to-know basis." He laid out as David reached the bottom of the ramp, turning his head quickly to fully absorb the environment. "Besides, that's not the only reason I'm here."
He walked in closer, leaning towards me with a much more serious look on his face.
"According to several reports out of our task force in Batarian space, there's been increasing reports of unrest from the local population the last six days, and they seem to be in open revolt." He explained, piquing my interest instantly. "Notably, several high-ranking members of the Hegemony, who we believe to be involved with the "Leviathan of Dis", went missing without explanation. Several nuclear detonations were detected forty-eight hours ago in many of the major population centers on Khar'shan."
"The Batarians are nuking themselves?" I questioned, suddenly perplexed by the thought of such an awful thing occurring, even to a race as barbaric as the batarians. "Why would they do that?"
"We're still not sure what's going on. Due to the communication breakdown between their systems, their colonies appear to either be unaware of what's happened, or have managed to suppress the information well enough that the local populations have been successfully kept in the dark." He hypothesized as I cocked my head, rubbing the underside of my chin. "Either way, the situation is a complete mess, which ties in with the next bit of news I have for you."
Gregory threw his head back, taking a deep breath before cracking a smile that managed to diffuse the tension that had built up in the air slightly.
"Shepard and his team managed to reach the home of the Collectors on the other side of the Omega, and put and end to them." He attempted to smile, looking be straight in the eyes as Richard began talking to David in the background. "Unfortunately, the operation came at a cost."
"Oh no… what happened?" I asked, fearing the worst possible outcome imaginable.
"Several members of Shepard's team did not make it through the mission." He confirmed, sinking my stomach as he opened up his omni-tool. "The list of casualties include the krogan Okeer, Alliance marines Essex, Mason and Milique, and three crew members killed in the lower deck of the Normandy by a hull breach."
All I could do is hang my head and sigh at this news, fighting the urge to blame myself in some way for what had happened. I knew these people, had banter with them and everything, and now they were gone. We'd tried to cover every angle possible, but it just seems like it wasn't enough.
"So, where are they going now?" I asked in a dull tone, crossing my arms over my chest as I forced myself not to dwell on the heavy atmosphere around me.
"Now that the Collector threat has been eliminated, Shepard and his team have been dispatched to Batarian space to investigate what's happening." He explained, tying the two bits of news back together. "As far as I know, he's under orders to remain undetected as he surveys the situation in their home system and outlying colonies."
"Well, I can't imagine someone better suited for the job." I smiled, attempting to breathe some positivity back into the conversation. "Um, listen, we're supposed to all attend a "feast" with the leadership of the UTT tonight. You're welcome to join us."
"That sounds lovely." He nodded, holding out his hand for me to shake, which I happily accepted. "It'll be nice to relax after watching all this chaos unfold the last few days.
Turning to face the much better looking David, both he and Richard gave their full attention to me as I took in his appearance. There were faint scars along his cranium where one of the "devices" had been attached, along with a few along his neckline. Other than that, he looked magnitudes better than he had before, even if he wasn't able to walk without the assistance of an exo suit.
"It's good to finally meet you, David." I greeted formally as he struggled to make eye contact with me. "Uh… Richard has told me great things about you."
"Richard… yes." He said, nodding slowly as he finally found the will to look in my eyes. "I remember you, from before. Sean Michaels, attended MIT and graduated with doctoral degree alongside Daniel Nemo. Worked on classified projects for Alliance."
"You sure seem to know a lot about me." I remarked in a cautious tone, crossing my arms.
"Sometimes I remember things from before, some good, some… difficult." He explained with obvious reluctance in his voice, staring into blank space before looking up at me again. "You... took me away from that place, made it quiet again… I'm sorry for everything I did."
"You don't have to apologize to me, it wasn't your fault." I reassured, trying my best to make sure I didn't push any possible buttons for stress or PTSD. "I'm happy to have you as part of our team, and I'm looking forward to seeing what you're capable of."
"I will try my best." He nodded, giving me a quick handshake. "Thank you."
"You're welcome." I smiled, leading the three of them back towards our ship as the transport began offloading its cargo.
As we walked, I couldn't help but keep dwelling on the batarians despite how much I wanted to focus on the newest member of our team. The thought that they would be willing to subject themselves to nuclear fire was both surprising and frightening. Something was obviously very wrong, and if that "Leviathan of Dis" was indeed a Reaper corpse like Richard had predicted two years ago, we could potentially be in for quite the rude awakening in the future.
Still, for now it wasn't our problem. As altruistic as I was, I wasn't going to act as if I could be there for everyone. Anyone who thinks they can is either lying or delusional. We had a race to uplift, and it was going to require our full attention.
…
A/N: Well, here we are again. We've got a little world building, a little banter, and a surprise that I bet some of you didn't see coming. Though part of me felt cheap going over the results of the suicide mission the way I did, there'll certainly be more regarding it in the future, in addition to everything else covered in this chapter. I hope you enjoyed it.
I've got my artist friend Nika working on another commission, but this time around its a concept of our new friends, the Raloi. So far, its looking incredible, and it should be done by the time the next chapter gets posted. I'll explain how to find it then, but hey, now you guys have another bonus to look forward to.
As always, I'd love to read any reviews, I'm always up for suggestions or constructive criticism. Stay tuned!